Bingqin Li

UNSW Sydney | UNSW · Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC)

Globally, labour markets are encountering profound changes because of the digital revolution. Middle income countries such as China, are leapfrogging high-income countries to take advantage of the digital economy. The growing use of digital technologies is also reshaping the labour market in high-income countries such as Australia. Potentially, new...

Country governments and the WHO advocated that the "whole-of-government" and the "whole-of-society" approaches are necessary to fight against the pandemic. However, it is unclear what it means in practice and its implication in the of context of food security and in emergencies. This article examines in the “whole-of-government and whole-of-society...

Background Failing to provide social support to cover healthcare costs for rare diseases would lead to great financial distress for the patients and their families. People from countries without a well-developed health safety-net are particularly vulnerable. Existing literature on rare diseases in China focuses on the unmet needs for care of the pa...

Developing an old-age service system that can meet the fast-growing needs of the aging population is challenging. It is increasingly recognised that community-level services should be pivotal in providing services to older people. In this article, the authors use the Chinese experience and argue that because the state is not clear how such a system...

China, with its rapidly ageing population, faces escalated demands for aged care. By November 2020, seniors aged 60 and over represented 18.7 per cent of the population, a number projected to rise considerably by 2030. Concurrently, shifts in economic and social dynamics influence older individuals’ lifestyles, leading to varied demands. Traditiona...

Australia is an ethnically diverse nation with large numbers of migrants and refugees entering the country yearly. Despite research demonstrating that individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) communities experience an elevated risk of developing a mental illness, mental health services uptake is consistently low. To improve the...

Background Despite major primary health care (PHC) reforms in China with the 2009 launch of the National Essential Public Health Service Package, the country experiences many challenges in improving the management of non-communicable diseases in PHC facilities. "EMERALD" is a multifaceted implementation strategy to strengthen the management of hype...

Background Despite major primary health care (PHC) reforms in China with the 2009 launch of the National Essential Public Health Service Package, the country experiences many challenges in improving the management of non-communicable diseases in PHC facilities. “EMERALD” is a multifaceted implementation strategy to strengthen the management of hype...

Background The role of social environment, i.e., the aggregate effect of social determinants of health (SDOHs), in determining dementia is unclear. Methods We developed a novel polysocial risk score for dementia based on 19 SDOH among 5,199 participants in the Health and Retirement Study, US, to measure the social environmental risk. We used a sur...

The housing experience of international students has attracted increasing academic attention in recent years. Australia’s large international student population is largely reliant on lightly-regulated private rental housing, a market sector subject to extreme turbulence during COVID-19. However, while aspects of Australian student housing stress du...

This article studies the intricate dynamics of family resilience within the Chinese productivist regime over the course of seven decades, emphasizing the instrumental role of public policy in shaping this resilience. Drawing on a dynamic approach, the research demonstrates how, across distinct periods of central planning and economic reform, polici...

Physicians’ “know-do gaps” are a key factor driving the poor quality of healthcare in many developing countries, but there is little guidance on how to address these gaps. We designed a standardised patient audit study in China to evaluate the impact of physician over-service on their investment in learning and disease management decisions. We find...

Background The impact of multimorbidity on long-term care (LTC) use is understudied, despite its well-documented negative effects on functional disabilities. The current study aims to assess the association between multimorbidity and informal LTC use in China. We also explored the socioeconomic and regional disparities. Methods The study included...

The Chinese society is becoming old before becoming rich. It is also experiencing major social transitions such as smaller household sizes, intergenerational separation resulting from urbanisation, and the lack of community-level support networks for older people in need. These features pose hurdles to the development of an old age care system. In...

Despite being disproportionately affected by poor mental health, culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) individuals seek help from mental health services at lower rates than others in the Australian population. The preferred sources of help for mental illness amongst CaLD individuals remain poorly understood. The aim of this study was to expl...

Objective: To investigate the contribution of early-life factors on intrinsic capacity of Chinese adults older than 45 years. Methods: We used data on 21 783 participants from waves 1 (2011) and 2 (2013) of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), who also participated in the 2014 CHARLS Life History Survey to calculate a pre...

This report outlines the results from the research project Food for Urban Life and Localities (FULL). The research set out to urgently learn from how different COVID-19 response strategies, as a paradigm shift, have stimulated new food supply solutions through social and technological innovations for vulnerable groups in London, Seoul, Singapore, S...

Overuse of health care is a potential factor in explaining the rapid increase in health care expenditure in many countries; however, it is difficult to measure overuse. This study employed the novel method of using unannounced standardised patients (SPs) to identify overuse, document its patterns and quantify its financial impact on patients in pri...

Policy Brief from our Food for Urban Lives and Localties.

Background Australia is an ethnically diverse nation. Research has demonstrated an elevated risk of developing a mental illness in culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) communities yet uptake of mental health services is low. To improve mental health treatment seeking and outcomes for CaLD individuals in Australia there is an urgent need to...

Objectives To measure the disease burden of ageing based on age-related diseases (ARDs), the sex and regional disparities and the impact of health resources allocation on the burden in China. Design A national comparative study based on Global Burden of Diseases Study estimates and China’s routine official statistics. Setting and participants Thi...

Importance Falls have become a major public health issue in China with population aging. Although falls prevention for older community-dwelling people has been included in the National Essential Public Health Service Package since 2009, there is limited understanding of the implementation of this program. Objective To identify the associated facto...

As a late comer to the world of welfare states, China faces numerous choices as it tries to establish a comprehensive welfare system. Is it possible for China to copy from the West directly and avoid all the costs associated with development? What should it prioritise and who should have a say? Should the state solve social problems directly and at...

Against a global backdrop of growing concerns on housing crises, Chinese megacities have earned unwelcome distinction as among the world’s least affordable real estate. In the West, the alleged ‘over-restrictiveness’ of land-use planning has formed a focus of contestation on factors contributing to unduly expensive housing. In the Chinese context,...

Background Maintaining and optimising intrinsic capacity (IC) across a person’s life course is a core component of the World Health Organization’s model of healthy ageing. However, the contribution of cumulative health inequalities over time to subtle changes in IC in late life is not well understood. Methods We included 21,783 participants aged 4...

Objective Healthcare expenditures have increased very fast in many countries. Overuse of health care is a potential factor explaining the rapid increase. However, overuse, defined as ‘the provision of health care service when its likely risk of harm exceeds its potential benefit’ is difficult to measure ¹. This study employs a novel method using un...

Migration may lead to changing power dynamics between parents and children in families. Children may change their behavior in order to exercise agency to respond to migration of family members or themselves. This systematic review seeks to understand how children exercise agency within families in the context of migration. The authors searched ten...

There is a growing interest in whether and how parents’ experiences of discrimination may affect their children’s health and well-being. Considering that the intergenerational influence of discrimination on child well-being is still underexplored in China, there is an urgent need to determine whether children become depressed as a result of their p...

This study aims to review China's national policies related to non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention and control at the primary health care (PHC) level since China's 2009 health system reform. Policy documents from official websites of China's State Council and 20 affiliated ministries were screened, where 151 out of 1,799 were included. Themat...

Background Falls in older people have become a major public health concern worldwide, but a comprehensive assessment of the burden of falls for older people in mainland China has not been done. We aimed to investigate the burden of falls among older people at the national and subnational level in mainland China, and explore the trends from 1990 to...

We welcome Original Research and Review articles from various disciplines including sociology, management, demography, psychology, economics, and public health etc. Interdisciplinary and comparative studies are welcomed. We encourage submissions of the following subtopics, but not limited to: • Mental health issues at work in economic transitionin...

In policy analyses, the mindset of policymakers is crucial to determine the governing culture, incentivise stakeholders and the policy outcomes. This article analyses how policymakers have responded to the needs of old age care in China by examining the policies associated with community-based care. The research establishes that China has shifted f...

An uncommon ‘homeowner’ protest in Shanghai in 2017 manifested public anger towards a government crackdown on commercial property converted apartments (CPCAs). Spotlighting this previously hidden but significant Chinese housing submarket, the episode highlighted ‘homeowner’ concerns over insecure property rights. Internationally, commercial-to-resi...

In 2014, the Chinese government adopted a version of the controversial Big Push approach to poverty reduction, and augmented this once-discredited developmental narrative by enlisting very large private enterprises to operate in the poorest regions. Not without controversies, this approach and the resources associated with it has created new state-...

There remains limited literature to facilitate understanding of healthy ageing-related policies in China over the last five-year policy planning cycle. This study aims to characterise all relevant policies and identifies the policy gaps from a health system perspective. A scoping review framework was used. A thorough search for healthy ageing-relat...

How to improve access and quality of social services to respond to cultural diversity is receiving increased attention. Yet no approach to cultural responsiveness has been widely accepted. Coproduction has been championed in many service fields for better service outcomes and has the potential to inform practices for cultural responsiveness. This s...

Urban-centric growth resulting from urban expansion and land redevelopment may result in rural–urban conflicts. Over time, in China, the affected social groups, such as urban residents in the poorer neighbourhoods, peri-urban farmers and urban population living in the peri-urban areas have found their voices in the academic literature, and some hav...

Urban Governance Journal introduction and call for papers

Development induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) projects should share their benefits with those affected by them. This paper shows that in the case of the Yangtze-Huai River Diversion Project in China perceptions of compensation received differs amongst different groups of resettled people even if levels of compensation are similar. Based...

The 'publish or perish' system has been widespread in the global higher education sector to incentivize academic performance. How the system affects academics in non-western countries has received scant attention. This research studies the relationship between different types of employment contracts, work pressure and the childbearing decisions of...

The second King's College London Symposium on Ageing and Long-term Care in China was convened from 4 to 5th July 2019 at King's College London in London. The aim of the Symposium was to have a better understanding of health and social challenges for aging and long-term care in China. This symposium draws research insights from a wide range of disci...

Western universities are confronting the looming challenge that students from mainland China may no longer desire to study abroad after COVID-19. To continue attracting Chinese and other international students, host universities will need to show that they care about the wellbeing of the students. But if student numbers stay low post-COVID-19, they...

Countries around the world are searching for answers to the question: how to effectively respond to the pandemic when there is no vaccine available? They come up with different solutions. This report compares the responses of China, South Korea and Singapore, focusing on their overall strategies, the constraints of each country, and the outcomes of...

Background: China has the largest number of aging people in need of long-term care, among whom 70% have chronic diseases. For policy planners, it is necessary to understand the different levels of needs of long-term care and provide long-term care insurance to ensure the long-term care needs of all people can be met. Methods: This study combines th...

This paper captures the ongoing "talent war" between Chinese cities by studying how municipal governments have coordinated migration settlement policies and subsidized rental housing policies to restructure the labour force for economic upgrading. Policies in four cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chongqing are coded and reviewed in detail to...

There is great inequality of educational resources between different provinces in China due to unbalanced economic development. Despite continued redistribution of financial resources by the central government in favor of poorer provinces, educational inequality remains. In this paper, we argue that focusing on educational resources is far from suf...

In China, policy pilots are not about implementation; it is meant to establish new institutions, adopting new practices or finding new solutions that may not be officially endorsed or publicly recognized yet. Pilots are also not “experiments” in which interventions are clearly designed and executed under strict control. It is to some extent a form...

The information and communications technology (ICT) sector has attracted growing interest among stakeholders in countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Chinese investors. A Digital Silk Road initiative within the BRI is growing, as countries are encouraged to work together on production and trade enabled by digital technologies...

As China continues to urbanise and both intra- and inter-regional migrants move out from their home villages, local economies adapt and form new ecosystems with linked migrants. As a result, local policies targeting one group of migrants may unintentionally affect the other. To reveal it, this paper explores how households’ housing choices shaped b...

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) sometimes disagree with their funders’ accountability requirements; however, their dependence on the funders’ resources makes it difficult to express their disagreement. This dilemma for NGOs may keep funders from substantively holding NGOs to account and cause mission drift for the NGOs. This paper analyzes an...

Affordable housing is a critical problem for Australia's biggest housing markets. Five Australian cities are in the top 25 with "severely unaffordable" housing in a 2019 Demographia survey of 91 major metropolitan markets. Sydney was ranked the third least affordable of the 91. The average age of first-time buyers in Sydney has reached 38. And, on...

This study investigates the characteristics of Chinese older people receiving home and community care and the factors associated with the sources of payment for care services. The data come from the Social Survey of Older People in Urban China, which collected information from a random sample of 3,247 older people aged 60 and over in 10 large citie...

社会学研究（Sociological Studies），04-2019，http://www.shxyj.org/Magazine/Show?id=29642 In 2012, the Central Economic Work Conference of China put forward a set of new principles for improving people’s livelihoods, which includes “ensuring the bottom line, focusing on the key issues, refining the systems, and influencing public opinions”. A new era begins...

In recent years, China has experienced rapidly increasing demand for old age care and relevant services for elderly people, as a result of the rapid growth in China’s older population (Peng, 2013). According to the 2015 Social Service Development Statistical Communique (Ministry of Civil Affairs, 2016), by the end of 2015, China’s population aged 6...

It is increasingly a concern that technological innovations may create as many problems as they solve. Together with the articles in this special issue, we outline the challenges and opportunities posed by technological changes to social development and the mechanisms through which technological innovations may deliver or prevent social development...

Top-down place-based competition and award (TDPBCA) has a growing presence in the West and a long existence in China. TDPBCA refers to the motivational strategy in which a higher authority sets a series of targets for lower-level governments to compete against each other or to pass the benchmarks set by the higher authority to become a winner. The...

Local Chinese governments have been experimenting with a form of top-down “co-production” under different names and for various purposes. This paper examines practices in four Chinese cities to understand the process by which this co-production is introduced, its implementation and its outcomes. We found that in these cities, co-production is impos...

This paper examines the turn to technology innovation in disability policy, as it has manifested in the accessibility and digital inclusion agendas in China and Australia. It provides a review of the disability policy changes and related initiatives in both countries to offer insights for broader discussions of digital technology innovation and soc...

This article studies the causes for unequal access to rural community and social development infrastructures in China. We use a dataset in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011–2012), the National Baseline Survey of Communities, to examine the availability of four types of infrastructures: public transportation, sanitation, healt...

This editorial focuses on the changing governance system in China concerning the policy areas of urbanization and environmental protection, drawing on several of the research papers in this special issue. Our review of the literature shows that there have been multiple changes at different levels to make the governing system more inclusive, flexi...

China, though experiencing fast growth, has to deal with various social tensions resulting from inequality. In this presentation, Associate Professor Li focuses on social and economic inequalities between provinces and discuss their relationships with social policy in China. She will first examine the degree of social and economic inequalities bet...